"The women of Bikini Kill let guitarist Billy Karren be in their feminist punk band, but only if he's willing to just "do some shit." Being a feminist dude is like that. We may ask you to "do some shit" for the band, but you don't get to be Kathleen Hannah."--@heatherurehere

Friday, July 20, 2007

Being "in Control" - ??

Last Monday evening in Chicago I enjoyably went to a Chicago Cubs baseball game. During the game I went to the men's room. It was a fairly large room with very long metal urinals and toilets in the back.

As I approached one of the large urinals I saw a 20's ish young lady moving out of the restroom. I have to presume that there was a line for the women's room and she had decided instead to use the men's room.

For me it was amusing and not an issue.

I heard several men responding to what was happening (not positively). One in particular said: "She had a smirk on her face" in apparent anger at "his" male space being violated (I'm guessing).

While not attributing too much meaning to what happened, it seemed and seems amusing to me to see what it can feel like when men have "their space" invaded and feel disempowered faintly, faintly in ways that women and girls and sometimes even boys may face in many other ways more frequently from (some) adult men.